Memphis Bleek Says He Started The Battle Between Nas & Jay Z

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Memphis Bleek sat down with Vlad TV recently to discuss the epic rap battle between Nas and Jay Z back in 2001, and apparently his “Mind Right” single was the fuel that ignited the now revered bar-for-bar showdown. Bleek chronicled how it all went down, saying that he recorded “Mind Right” after he heard through the grapevine that Nas threw a jab that he now knows was non-existent.

“Me and Nas actually never got into nothing; It was all that project ‘he say, she say’ shit,” he told Vlad TV. “So Nas did a freestyle on a [DJ Clue] tape — I think that was — and they called me. I think I was in the Bahamas, and they hit me and was like, ‘Nas getting at you on this joint and he played it for me over the phone. So then I wrote ‘Mind Right’ and was like, ‘Cool, you getting at me, I’m a get at you.”

Bleek then explained that his loose-cannon reaction, “Mind Right” led Nas to actually go at his then-Roc-A-Fella crew on a freestyle, an act in which he “opened up the floodgate for himself.” And while the beef is now a piece of coveted rap history, Bleek maintained his allegiance to Jay Z, stating that, contrary to popular belief, “Takeover” was the better diss record.

“‘Ether’ was — I’m not gonna say it was a bad record, it was dope — but all that shit was fake shit like ‘He wore Jazz chain.,’” Bleek said. “Anybody that know, know Hov was that nigga. He didn’t say no facts in that song, so that’s why I can’t hold it up there against ‘Takeover.’ ‘Takeover’ was factual. Niggas had pictures implement the lines they saying.”

Stacking up the validity of Nas’ lines to Jay Z’s, Bleek also admitted that his opinion on the matter was skewed.

“You can’t ask me, I’m biased,” he admitted. “You think you gonna really get me to sit here and be like ‘Yo, Nas killed my big homie?’ I don’t give a fuck if he did, you ain’t gonna never hear that from my mouth.”